Christie's speech sets GOP message

Updated 10:24 pm, Wednesday, August 29, 2012

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's address to the Republican National Convention may very well have set the tone for the fall campaign. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's address to the Republican National Convention may very well have set the tone for the fall campaign. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Photo: J. Scott Applewhite, Associated Press

Christie's speech sets GOP message

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

San Antonians of both parties have an understandable interest in the keynote speaker at next week's Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. Mayor Julián Castro will address a national audience, and whatever partisan message he delivers, he will also be making a statement about the city where he was born, where he grew up and which he now serves.

This week, however, Republicans are holding their national convention in Tampa, Fla. Anticipation of Castro's address shouldn't dilute the significance of the messages GOP leaders are delivering.

On Tuesday night, former Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz — who is seeking a U.S. Senate seat — took the stage. Cruz told his family's story in a calculated appeal to Hispanic voters, and delivered his message of limited government and entrepreneurship over runaway spending and dependency.

Ann Romney tried to humanize a candidate who is still inscrutable to many voters. In one of her more memorable lines, she said, “Mitt doesn't like to talk about how he has helped others because he sees it as a privilege, not a political talking point.”

But it was New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's keynote address that roused the GOP crowd and likely set the tone of the Romney/Ryan campaign. Christie's speech was notable for being more about him and his experience as governor than it was about the ticket he was there to endorse.

Christie talked about being the Republican governor of a state with a large Democratic majority, about the necessity of reaching across the partisan aisle while holding true to principle. He talked about his record of balancing budgets while cutting taxes, reforming pension and health benefit systems headed for bankruptcy and challenging educational mediocrity.

All this was a warm-up to his message about the qualities of leadership that require those in positions of responsibility to confront hard tasks and tell uncomfortable truths. On spending, entitlements and education, the nation's leaders had failed. The time has come to level with the American people about the hard road ahead and end “the era of absentee leadership.” Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, he averred, would do that.

There's a line of thinking that dismisses the significance of political conventions as nothing but stagecraft — smoke and mirrors. But the themes coming out of Tampa this week — and the ones that will come out of Charlotte next week — are important indicators of where the two political parties stand and where they hope to take the nation.